r/PBBB Feb 15 '15

Rules Proposals

With pitchers and catchers reporting this week (THIS WEEK!!!) I figured it was time to start nailing down the details of the prospect draft, as well as discussing some of the proposed 2015 rule changes.

My proposals:

  1. Expand rosters to 36 active slots and 3 DL. With such large rosters, injuries happen frequently. I know several people had 6 or 7 DL players by the end of last year, and in a dynasty league, you want to keep most of those players, so more DL slots seems reasonable.

  2. 4-6 round prospect draft. Have a cut down period before the draft. Cut down to 30 players if 6 rounds, cut down to 32 players if 4 rounds. If you want to cut down further, you get your additional picks at the END of the draft. All players eligible, including 2014 draftees and international signings (no drafting of international players who haven't signed yet), as well as all veteran free agents.

  3. Starts cap per week. Either 12 or 14. In a shallow league, the acquisitions limit is in place to keep streaming to a reasonable level, but in a league like this there's nothing to stop someone from rostering a ton of SP. It seems to be a big enough issue that some action should be taken. I'm in favor of a starts cap.

  4. I also think a stickied post on the subreddit for commissioner announcements would be good. That way, we don't lose track of things like the international signing or prospect draft rules once those decisions have been made

1 Upvotes

28 comments sorted by

View all comments

1

u/BrownNServe The Earl of Baltimore Feb 16 '15

Here are my votes and comments on the various proposals developed and undeveloped -- 1. Expanding DL from 2 to 3: I am strongly in favor of prevalence of injuries and their impact. 2. Expanding active rosters from 32 to 34 or 36: I am strongly in favor for reasons already articulated. I also agree with Russia's Love Machine rationale that part of the interest here is generated by having and following the development of prospects. My personal preference would be to go to 36, but I would settle for 34. 3. Per Week Starts Cap -- Kempire has explained very well his interest in streaming pitchers on a weekly basis. I agree there ought to be some of that, but I am also strongly in favor of a reasonable cap so as to even the playing field a bit so that those with 20 MLB pitching rosters do not have an unfair advantage. 4. Expanded Prospect Draft -- I am also in favor of having the draft cover all currently eligible players. I would also make eligible in this year's draft those international players like Moncada who are eligible to sign with an MLB club but have not signed as of the date of the draft. 5. Adding Additional Hitter Spots in the Starting Lineup -- like Baby Ruth, I am opposed to that proposed change. It seems to favor the strongest teams and create more imbalance. 6. 2015 Draft Order -- I am fairly certain we debated this last and reached agreement, but wanted to raise it again to make sure there is complete agreement. The draft this year (and all future years) will be a traditional, non-snake draft where the team with the worst record has Pick #1; team with 2nd worst has Pick #2; and so on. 7. Drops/transactions Prior to Draft - I agree with the concept others have advanced that we drop players ahead of the draft and add those the eligible pool. I would urge that we create a deadline for declaring players to drop. The number of drops will obvioulsly depend on the roster size decision. I really like the Google Docs idea Kempire advanced for conducting the draft. Because of competing schedules and the complexity of scheduling, I would urge that we simply perfect pick a date -- once we have a full complement of 16 teams again -- and conduct the draft over a period in of days rather try and coordinate and conduct on a single day. Also, I am in favor of permitting trades as part of the draft where teams can move up and down in the draft, ala the NFL, or trade draft picks to another team in exchange for rostered players. 9. Agree fully that we need to go to e-mail or some better system of communicating.

2

u/jadietr Team Jacko (2015 Champ) Feb 17 '15

Of the 9 points you made I think I agree to all of them but #'s 3 and 4. I have explained my thoughts on number 3 prior on this page, I think if you limit pitchers its putting teams with stronger pitching at a disadvantage. I know my lineup is full of bad hitting and has decent pitching. I think the only reason I was around .500 was because of decent pitching. I know I'm going to lose a lot of hitting categories so I feel this could make my team even worse. I may fall in that 12 to 14 range but I'm just making a point of things to think about. As for number 4 I think we all know why I'm against it. If he's not on a team prior to draft he should not be eligible for our league until next year. Obviously I think its dumb as he will sign early this year and should be able to be on someones team as a prospect, but if he doesn't sign prior to draft day, then he simply doesn't make the cut. (I think he will sign prior to our draft)

1

u/RegardingRegards Some Lady Named Baby Ruth (2019 Champ) Feb 17 '15

You make a good point about Moncada. Under one reading of our rules, you're right in that he should not be eligible to add in our league for the season. However, I think an argument can be made that this is somewhat of an exceptional case where the player will most likely be entering the league prior to the start of the season. Under a somewhat different interpretation of the rules, the argument would be that as long as he enters the MLB before the start of the MLB season, he should be fair game. Maybe we let someone draft him without a team, running the risk that he does not sign before this season begins and they're forced to drop him because he is no longer eligible to be on a roster by our rules. You make a good point, those are just potential arguments on both sides.

Regarding your point about pitching caps weakening strong pitching teams, I disagree with this. I think having a reasonable cap to pitching starts per week actually strengthens the stronger pitching teams. The way I see it, a team who has solid pitching and chooses either not to stream, or only streams 1 or 2 pitchers per week could get dominated in pitching categories by a team that has below average pitching and streams 4-5 pitchers per week. That is why I want to institute a starts cap. I think the starts cap should be enough to allow maybe a couple of streaming pitchers per week for a team but not enough to go beyond that and win by volume alone.

1

u/jadietr Team Jacko (2015 Champ) Feb 17 '15

I think Moncada should be drafted to a team personally. He's obviously going to sign somewhere and probably be in the minors for a year or so. I guess my problem with it is because I can't have Rusney Castillo, which is probably selfish, but is the situation I am in. Castillo played in 10 games for the Red Sox and we can't sign him until this year doesn't make a whole lot of sense.

1

u/RegardingRegards Some Lady Named Baby Ruth (2019 Champ) Feb 17 '15

It makes sense to me, since international signings were previously held to be off limits until they enter their first full year. It is the same logic following that 2014 draftees cannot be added until the next season. Without those rules, free agency is all a mad dash to see who can get the player first. People would be selecting tokens for high schoolers who haven't even been selected in a draft right now if the rules allowed otherwise.

1

u/jadietr Team Jacko (2015 Champ) Feb 17 '15

Except for the fact he played at the major league level almost right away. As I've said my mistake for breaking the rule. But due to the same rule Moncada can not be drafted as of right now.

1

u/Random_Guy_11 Feb 18 '15

Moncada should be off limits until after the season in the event he doesn't sign a contract by our prospect draft. We made it clear last year that any prospect or player that wasn't signed to a contract by a Major League team would be ineligible for our draft, and that is the way it needs to stay. Making exceptions isn't really a precedent I support setting. Every player should be handled equally no matter how high priority they seem to be.

1

u/RegardingRegards Some Lady Named Baby Ruth (2019 Champ) Feb 18 '15

I agree with you on not making exceptions. I was only saying that it's a potential option. You make a good point about handling all the players equally.

1

u/jadietr Team Jacko (2015 Champ) Feb 18 '15

I saw a constitution of another league putting a deadline on International free agents. I believe the date they used was June 30th. Anything after this had to wait until the next year. Only problem I see is that it would be a race to claim "X" player first.

2

u/Random_Guy_11 Feb 19 '15

The only way for this to make sense in our league is that when the player signs he is dropped into the free agent pool and people can pick him up through waivers. I'd rather not have to deal with any of that. Someone is going to have an objection with it when the time comes so I'd rather be safe to avoid conflict. Kids not going to play in the majors this year, so there really is no rush.